November 20, 2012

Lobster Afternoon Tea - Hong Kong Shangri-la

There is probably nothing I'd rather do on a chilly Sunday afternoon than going for tea with one of my best friends. Chloris and I were roommates at City University of Hong Kong for a year, and I believe sharing a 9 square meters room for that long has bonded us forever. I had other rommates during my 3 years degree at CityU, Sissi from Singapore got deep into my heart too. I'm sure Sissi and I would still hang out a lot if we were to live in the same city, because we really hit it up. Unfortunately this is not the case, but I'm sure we will still have many chances to see each other. As for Chloris, well, she has become my best friend in Hong Kong. We have known each other for more than four years now and I think we both enjoy each other's company a lot. We now like to meet once a month for tea and chit-chat, and simply some girls quality time.

This time Chloris was the one to choose the venue. She showed me an article in a magazine featuring the Hong Kong Shangri-la's Lobster Afternoon Tea, and told me she would like to give it a try. We made a reservation and... off we went!

I originally thought afternoon tea was served at the lobby, but this particular one turned out to be served at the Lobster Bar, right next to the lobby. The waiter then told us that both the Lobster bar and the lobby served afternoon tea at the same price, except that the one we were about to enjoy came with plenty of lobster. Besides, the Lobster Bar has the option of accompanying the tea set with a bottle of Veuve Cliquot rosé, which we didn't go for. This lobster afternoon tea was good, yet there was SO much food, at last I had to just eat half of each petit four in order to get to try them all. The best thing of this tea set were the scones. They were warm and delicious, served with perfect Devonshire cream and jam, just like scones are supposed to be :) The worst thing: its poor tea selection. Don't aim for fancy tea blends here, all they have is the common English Breakfast, Vanilla, Peppermint and the like, which was a bit disappointing for a 5 star hotel.

I would rate this set 4* because besides the savory items with lobster being yummy, the sweets were not that good. The tea selection was below average too as mentioned above.

Visited on: November 11, 2012

Overall Quality: 4*

Price: HK$428 + 10% service charge for a tea set for two or HK$788 + 10% including a bottle of Veuve Clicquot rosé

Value for Money: 4*

Would I recommend it? It'd say there are better high tea sets out there. The atmosphere is nonetheless unique and extremely relaxing, with big tables, not that many people and live piano performance.